Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 37. Number 37, How Great Thou Art. Let's all stand together. Number
37. O Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder Consider all the works Thy hands have made, I see the
stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe
displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When through the woods and forest
glades I wander and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,
when I look down From lofty mountain grandeur, And hear the brook,
and feel the gentle breeze, Then sings my soul, my Savior God,
to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! And when I think that God, His
Son not sparing, Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in. That on the cross, my burden
gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee How great Thou art! How great Thou art! When Christ shall come with shout
of acclamation, And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart! Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, My God, how great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then sings my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee. How great Thou art. How great Thou art. Please be seated. Good evening. We're going to
read from Isaiah 61 this evening. Isaiah 61, a very familiar passage
of scripture. You remember this is the one
the Lord read when he began his public ministry proclaiming himself
to be the one we just sang about. How great thou art. The spirit of the Lord is upon
me. because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto
the meek." The gospel, good news. He has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening
of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort
all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give
unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the
garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might
be called the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord. that he might be glorified. What a promise. What a savior.
Pray the Lord will enable us to worship him tonight. Let's
pray together. Our heavenly father, we're thankful
that you were were merciful and gracious to send your darling
son into this world. to save sinners, to comfort those
who mourn, to deliver those who are captive to their own sin
and to the darkness of unbelief, to plant trees of righteousness,
Lord, that would bear fruit to your glory. We pray that you would Minister Grace now to our hearts
as you enable us to look to Christ, set our affections on him, to
rejoice in him, to rest in him and to rely upon his finished
work for all our acceptance before the Lord. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 304, 304, 304, and let's
all stand again. Savior, more than life to me,
I am clinging, clinging close to Thee. Let Thy precious blood
apply. Keep me ever, ever near Thy side
Every day, every hour Let me feel Thy cleansing power May
Thy tender love to me Bind me closer, closer, Lord, to Thee
Through this changing world below Lead me gently, gently as I go
Trusting Thee, I cannot stray I can never, never lose my way
Every day, every hour Let me feel Thy cleansing power. May Thy tender love to me bind
me closer, closer, Lord, to Thee. Let me love thee more and more,
Till this fleeting, fleeting life is o'er, Till my soul is
lost in love. in a brighter, brighter world
above. Every day, every hour, let me
feel thy cleansing power. May thy tender love to me bind
me closer, closer, Lord, to thee. Please be seated. What a thrill it is to a believer's
heart to have someone who hears the gospel say to them, what
doth hinder me? What doth hinder me? Can I be
saved? What keeps me from being saved? Oh, I wish I had that response
more often than I do. Philip in Acts chapter 8 had
that very response. I hope that'll be our response
when we hear the gospel. Oh, is it possible that the Lord
would save even me? What doth hinder me to be saved? Turn to me in your Bibles, if
you will, to Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8. What a glorious question to ask.
I'm sure Philip was thrilled when he heard this Ethiopian
say, after hearing the gospel, what doth hinder me to be baptized?
Would God have mercy upon me? Could I be saved? That's not
the normal response. I had a man tell me just a few
days ago, after sharing the gospel with him on many occasions, but
this was the last time. And he told me not to come back.
Not interested. Don't want to hear it. Actually
told me that he was quite capable of standing in the presence of
God on his own. That sends chills through my
soul to think about that. But I fear that that's the response
that most folks have to the gospel. Rarely do you hear someone say,
could that be for me? What does hinder me? Oh, I pray
the Lord will put into our hearts that desire. Could this gospel
be for me? Is there anything that would
hinder me from being saved? Most folks don't even consider
the destiny of their own immortal souls. They think that this world
is all there is, or at least they act that way. They just
put it out of their mind altogether, but death is not anything I need
to concern myself with. I've got too many worldly affairs
to think about. And so they go about their lives
eating and drinking and being merry, not knowing that tomorrow
they shall die. Others, if they do give some
thought to their souls, will quickly make a covenant with
death. They'll make an agreement with
hell and they'll establish some works that they think will satisfy
God and go about their lives trusting in that experience for
the hope of their salvation, not knowing that the Lord is
going to disannul that covenant. and that they are actually hanging
over the very pit of hell, hanging to a spider's web, as the scripture
says. Rarely does a person hear the
gospel and say, could I be saved? Is there anything that hinders
me? Others will hear the gospel and
they'll say, well, yeah, that's something I need, but then they'll
make excuses. as they did to our Lord. Let
me go home and bury my father first. And while the Lord say,
let the dead bury the dead, you come and follow me. And another
one said, let me go first and bid them farewell. And the Lord
said, if a man put his hand to the plow and looked back, he's
not fit for the kingdom of God. You come and follow me. Rarely
does a person hear the gospel and have the urgency for their
souls, the urgency for salvation to say, what doth hinder me? Could this be for me? Could I
be saved right now? Right now? Isn't that the urgency
that the Holy Spirit puts on the hearts of His children all
the time? I want that sort of spirit of urgency to be on my
heart. Now that's exactly what this
Ethiopian said in In verse 36 of our text, Acts
chapter 9, Acts chapter 8, they went on their way, they came
to a certain water, and the eunuch said, see, water, what doth hinder
me to be baptized? Could I be a follower of Christ?
Is it possible that he would accept me, even me? This story begins in verse 26.
There are many, many things to draw
from this story that I hope will be helpful for each of us in
bringing us to that place of saying, Lord, could this salvation
be for me? What doth hinder me? to be baptized, to be a follower
of Christ, to be saved right now. In verse 26, the scripture says
that, well, previous to that, Philip is in Antioch, and the
Lord has sent his spirit and power, and there's a large number
of people that are converted, and Philip's a part of that revival,
if you will, preaching the gospel and people being saved, and I'm
sure that Philip would have wanted to just stay right there. But
the Spirit of the Lord came to Philip and instructed him to
leave that place and to go down into the desert to a place called
Gaza. And the angel of the Lord spake
unto Philip, saying, Arise and go towards the south unto the
way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. The Lord has an elect people,
and he knows where they are. and he's going to get the gospel
to them one way or the other. The Samaritan woman is a good
picture of that, isn't she? The disciples thought, we don't
want to go through Samaria. They were coming from Galilee
down to Jerusalem, we just go around Samaria. And the Lord
said, no, I must needs go through Samaria. I've got people there. and they're gonna hear the gospel.
And we're gonna go out of our way to preach the gospel to them. And he did. And what a glorious
picture. God knows where his children
are. He knows where every one of them are. Even as I was speaking
to this man I mentioned to you a moment ago the other day, there
was another man in the same room who I wasn't even there to visit
or talk to. who was hanging on every word that I was speaking
to this person who had no interest in the gospel. Who knows? Who knows? Can't get away from the Lord
if you belong to Him. I love that story in the book
of Philemon of Onesimus You know, he was a slave in Philemon's
house where the church met and had heard the gospel preached
on many occasions and finally had an opportunity to run, and
he did. And he ran to Rome, didn't he? And thought, well, I'm done
with that. I'm in the big city now. I'll
just get lost in the crowd, and I don't have to think about that
anymore, and ends up in the same jail cell with the Apostle Paul. Oh. Parents, if you have unbelieving
children, if they belong to the Lord, He's going to get the gospel
to them or get them to the gospel, however He has to do it. And
here was a man, an Ethiopian, a eunuch, traveling back home,
and the Lord sent a gospel preacher to preach the gospel to him. That's a great hope to me, and
knowing that anyone the Lord puts on their heart, could I
be saved? He's going to bring the gospel
to them so that they'll know how to be saved. How can they
believe on Him in whom they've not heard? And how can they hear
without a preacher? God uses the foolishness of preaching.
He uses our witness, doesn't He? Oh, if the Lord would enable
us to be ready always to give an answer to them who ask us
for the hope that's within us and to do it with meekness and
fear. That's the means that the Lord's going to use. He's going
to use the church. He's going to use the gospel. He's going
to use his people and he's going to get that message to everyone. The second thing I see in verse
26 is that, is that sinners are always found in the desert. They're always found in the desert.
That's where we live. This is a dry and thirsty land.
There's no hope for life in the desert unless God does what he
did for the children of Israel and sends manna from heaven.
And Philip was God's means by which he was gonna bring manna
from heaven right down into that desert place. When Mephibosheth, was hiding from
David. Scripture says that he was in
a place called Lodabar. Lodabar. Translated it means
no bread. No bread. And David sent Ziba
to go get Mephibosheth and brought him where? To the king's table
and sat him at the king's table and fed him with the king's fare
the rest of his life. The Lord goes into the desert. When he brought Ruth from Moab,
a country, a pagan country where there was no gospel, where did
he bring Ruth to? He brought her to Bethlehem.
And Bethlehem translated means the house of bread. And that's
where she met Boaz and was gloriously saved. The Lord always goes out
into the desert. If He's found you and found me,
He found us in the desert. He found us in a place where
there was no bread. The story of that prodigal. What was the
prodigal doing when he finally came to himself? He was eating
the food that the swine do eat. He was teaching the Sunday school
classes what he was doing. He had made himself a part of
a religious group and trying to atone for his sins and trying
to make things right with God. And when he came to himself,
what did he say? My servants have bred enough
and to spare, and here I am dying of hunger. And so what did he
do? He went home, didn't he? The
Lord brought him from a desert place to the place where he could
have his soul fed with the bread of life. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He leadeth
me. He leadeth me. He prepares a table before me.
He leadeth me beside the still waters. He leadeth me into green
pastures. Oh, that's where the Lord does.
He takes His children from the desert place and brings them
to a place where they're able to eat. Look at verse 27. That's what I need Him to do
for me. I need for Him to... because I will wander into the
desert and there's nothing out there. There's nothing in the
desert. It's a dead place. There's no
life out there. And how often times we find ourselves
getting off the path and find ourselves, Lord, bring me back
to the table that you prepared for me. Bring me back to green
pastures. Bring me out of Lodabar. Bring
me to Bethlehem. Bring me to that place where
I can feast on the bread of life. Do for me what you did for this
Ethiopian. Send me the word of God through
whatever means you choose to do so. Oh Lord, send me the word
of life. For the word of life is the hope
of my salvation. Look at verse 27. And he arose and went, and behold, a man of
Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, Queen of Ethiopia,
who had the charge of her treasury, and came and had come to Jerusalem
for to worship." God sent Philip from this great revival where
lots of folks were being converted by the grace of God to fetch
one lost soul. down in the desert. Now, those
of you that came out of man-made religion like I did know the
emphasis that is placed in religion on numbers. on numbers, nickels
and noses. I mean, that's what it's all
about. And you measure the success of your ministry by how many
people come and by how big your programs are and how much money
you've got and how big you're, what a difference. The Lord's
emphasis is on individual souls, one soul at a time. You know, if God puts an interest
in the heart of one man to hear the gospel, we'll go take it
to him, won't we? We'll do whatever. I've had folks
call me and say, well, you know, we just got a small group. You
know, we're a little embarrassed about having you come so far
to come preach to us. Do you have an interest in your
soul? Yeah. Are you going to be there? Yeah,
I'll be there. I'll be there. We'll go to whatever lengths
we have to go to preach the gospel to one person. One person. Never underestimate the value
of one's soul. How valuable is your soul to
you? The first distinction that the
scriptures give us of this Ethiopian is notice in verse 27, a man. He was a man. That means that
he was a son of Adam. That means that he was fallen.
That means that he was a sinner in need of salvation. He was
just a man. He was a man of great worldly
influence, no doubt. He was over the treasury of the
whole country of Ethiopia and a man, I'm sure, who had great
power and influence, but he was nevertheless just a man. It reminds me of kind of like
Naaman. You know, Naaman was the the
commander of the army of Syria, the strongest nation in the world,
and yet he was a leper. And he was just a man, just a
man. That's what we all are, but that's
who the Lord came to save. He came to save the children
of Adam who fell into spiritual death in their father and are
in need of a savior. So the Lord sends Philip to preach
the gospel to a man. And what's the second distinction
or definition that God gives us of this man? He was an Ethiopian. Now, whether he was black-skinned
or not, I don't know. The scripture doesn't say. Probably
so. But the word Ethiopia means black,
and it means dark. And the spiritual application
has nothing to do with the color of his skin. It has everything
to do with the condition of his soul. He was in darkness. No reason to think that Nicodemus
was a black man, and yet he came to the Lord by night. He was
unable to see the truth. He was blind. That's the picture
here. And so those who say, could it
be possible that the Lord would save me? Understand themselves
to be in the desert. They understand themselves to
be nothing but a man and man at his very best state is altogether
vanity. He's fallen in his father, Adam,
and they understand themselves to be walking in darkness apart
from the light of the gospel. Lord, if you don't shine the
light of the gospel in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ in my
heart, I'll live in darkness. I'll depart this world with not
knowing the truth and die and be separated from you in a place
of eternal darkness. What else does the scripture
tell us about this man? tells us that he was a eunuch.
Now, a eunuch is a man who's unable to father a child. He's unable. Physically, he's
unable. He cannot generate life. Concerning his ability to procreate,
he is dead. He's dead. That's where we are, isn't it?
Here's a man lost in the desert, in darkness, and he's a eunuch. He can't bring about any life
on his own. He's completely dependent upon
another to bring life to him. He was of great authority in
this world. In this world, he had much power
and much influence. much authority and he was poor
he was rich and yet he was poor when the Lord saves a person
they may be poor but they become very rich don't they having nothing
they have everything Don't ever be intimidated by people who
have a lot of material things in this world and achieve some.
I'm sure this man had set in his heart the desire to achieve
some level of success in this world and he had achieved it.
He had achieved it. You know, my experience has been
that sometimes folks that have achieved the highest level of
success in this world are the most unhappy and dissatisfied
because they know by... You see, the person that's still
climbing the ladder has hopes that when he gets to the top,
he's going to find something of value. But the person who's
at the top realizes there's nothing here. There's nothing here. The Lord gives you opportunity
to talk to someone who's gotten to the top of the ladder, talk
to them. Maybe their eyes have been opened, maybe they've come
to realize there's nothing here. They're rich and yet they're
poor, got nothing. And he was part of a system of
government in this world. The name Candace is not a given
name. It's the name of a dynasty. It's
kind of like Pharaoh. Pharaoh was a dynasty over Egypt,
many, many generations, and so is Candace. over Ethiopia. So he was a part of this dynasty,
this worldly system of government, and yet he knew nothing of the
governing grace of God in his heart. Isn't that where we are? We're just like this Ethiopian,
aren't we? We're in the desert. We're a man. We're eunuch. We
might have many things that this world has to offer, and yet without
Christ we have nothing. We're walking according to the
governing systems of this world and until the Lord arrests us
and puts us under Christ, we just don't have anything. We
don't know anything. He was in charge of all her treasury,
rich and yet poverty stricken. What does the scripture say?
Blessed is the man who is poor of spirit. This great powerful man had to
be brought by the grace of God to be made poor. And that's exactly
what the Lord did for him. When he said, is there any way
that this message you just preached to me could be for me? Is there
anything that hinders me? No, if you fit the qualifications
of all the things that this Ethiopian fit, and the Lord causes you
to mourn and to see your abject poverty when it comes to spiritual
things, we really don't have anything. We really don't. I was thinking, well, I've done
some things that are very sincere in my life. Doesn't that count
for something? Sincere, perhaps, compared to when you weren't
sincere. The problem with that is that
you're not the standard by which God judges righteousness. You
see, our man at his very best state is altogether vanity. The
most sincere thing that we do doesn't measure up. to the righteousness
that God requires. It falls short of His glory.
We're poor. We don't have anything. We're in need of His grace. And
look what else it says. He had come to Jerusalem for
to worship. Now, I'm sure this was a well-educated
man. Perhaps he was even bilingual. We hear that he's reading from
the scroll of Isaiah, which no doubt would have been in Hebrew. And Hebrew's not the native tongue
of Ethiopia. So either he had a translator
in the chariot with him that was reading the scriptures to
him out loud, or he was reading them out loud in Hebrew. He was
a well-educated and well-traveled person, and he had heard about
a God in Israel that's name was Jehovah, that could save, and
he had an interest in the things of God. He said, well, wait a
minute, I thought no man seeketh after God at any time. Yes, that's
true. That's true. That doesn't mean
that men by nature aren't religious. It doesn't mean that men by nature
are not spiritual. What that means is that man by
nature will never seek the God who is. He's seeking after a
God. He's seeking after some atonement
for his sin. He's seeking after some hope
of eternal life. But why would you seek after
something that you don't even know exists? The natural man doesn't know
the God who is exists. So how can you seek after him? The point being that in order
for us to know the God who is, he must initiate the relationship
with us. He's got to seek us. So this
man had gone to Jerusalem for to worship. And he was coming
home just as empty as he was when he got there. The problem
with the worship in Jerusalem is that it was no different from
every other works religion of the world. They had degenerated. Well, the Lord, just before his
crucifixion, went in and cleansed the temple and told them that
they had turned the house of prayer into a den of thieves,
and they had made it into nothing more than a man-made works religion
of rules and regulations and he found no more hope in Jerusalem
than the religions of Ethiopia whatever they were with the exception of one thing
Romans chapter 3 verse 1 what profit there is there to be a
Jew much in every way for they have the oracles of God What
benefit did the Jews have? They had the word of God. There
was no word from God in Ethiopia. There was no word from God in
Egypt. The word of God was only in Jerusalem. It was only in
Israel. And the Lord sent him there to acquire. I can't imagine
what a, what a scroll of Isaiah would have cost him. Of course,
it was probably no big expense to him, but, but, uh, it would
have been, you know, very rare thing to be able to acquire a
copy of the scriptures. And yet he did. And so the benefit
of going to Jerusalem was not that he worshiped God, but that
he came back with a copy of the scriptures. of his own will begat
he us with the word of truth." You see, we have to fit the description
of this Ethiopian. We have to be spiritually dead. We have to be dry. We have to
have no food. We have to live in Lodabar. We
have to be in the desert. We have to be an eunuch. We have
to be in darkness. We have to, we have to, you know,
we don't have any hope of saving ourselves. And yet we have to
have the Word of God. God's not going to save anybody
apart from His Word. Turn to me, we've looked at this
passage on many occasions, but I want to show it to you one
more time. 1 Peter chapter 1. Verse 23, 1 Peter chapter 1 verse
23, being born again. Now if the Lord ever brings us
to the place of saying, could this be for me? That's what he
was saying. That's exactly what he was saying
when he said, what doth hinder me to be baptized? Is there any
way this gospel could be for someone like me? Could I be born
again? Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. The Lord's never saved anyone
apart from the Word of God. That's the means. Faith is necessary
for salvation. We all agree with that. Faith
comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the Word of God. And
it's not just reading the Bible. He was doing that. He was reading
Isaiah 53, the clearest description of the gospel, perhaps, in all
the Old Testament. He was reading it. And he didn't
understand it. He needed someone to interpret
it to him, and that's what preaching is. Preaching is nothing more
than comparing the spiritual to the spiritual, interpreting
the Word of God. Explaining the Word of God. For all flesh is as grass, and
all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withereth,
the flower thereof falleth away. All flesh. This man, I'm sure,
had an entourage of a very powerful, perhaps he had an army with him,
I don't know. Ethiopia would have been a very
significant country back then. He had certainly a very influential
place, but he was flesh. Why? Because he was a man. He
was a man. All flesh is his grass. And your
flesh and my flesh is going to die. It's going to die. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. Just to read the Bible is not
sufficient. Just to understand its historical
setting and to believe the events that are described in the Word
of God are not sufficient. Israel knew the acts of God. They knew what God had done.
They walked through the Red Sea. They saw the man come down from
heaven. They observed the mountain that quaked with fire and smoke.
They heard the voice of God. They saw the plagues in Egypt. They knew the acts of God. There
was no question in their heart about what had happened and who
did it. But Moses knew his ways. And
that's what preaching is. Preaching is not just telling
the acts of God. Preaching is telling the ways
of God. Preaching the gospel. which by the gospel is preached
unto you. Lord, preach the gospel to me
so that my eyes can be opened and I would be able to cry in
my heart, can I be saved? Could this be for me? What doth
hinder me to be baptized? Lord, put such an urgency on
my heart by making the gospel effectual to me. Let's go back to Romans chapter
eight. Verse 28, he was returning and
sitting in his chariot and read Isaiah the prophet. Then the
spirit said to Philip, go near and join thyself to this chariot. And one of the things the Lord's
burdened my heart with more recently is that he would give each of
us more opportunities to talk to folks about Christ. that he
would open doors of opportunity and give us boldness and clarity
to speak to people about the gospel. For his glory, for the salvation
of his people, Lord, make me bold like Philip
to run to those opportunities that you send me to. And I'm
just sure that if we prayed for the Spirit of God to make us
sensitive to the opportunities that are around us, we'd see
more than we normally do. And Philip ran thither to him
and heard him read the prophet Isaiah and said, understandest
what thou readest? I was thinking about how many
times the Lord dealt with folks rhetorically. In other words,
he asked them questions. When he approached the man at
the Pool of Bethesda, what did he say? Would thou be made whole? Would thou be made whole? Whenever
the blind Bartimaeus came to him, Bartimaeus, what would you
have me to do for you? When the Lord began to engage
in conversation with the woman at the well, what did he say?
Give me to drink. Would you provide me a drink? When he was talking to the rich
young ruler, he asked him a lot of questions. Why callest thou
me good? For there is none good but God.
What does the law require? Now the point here, Philip doesn't
just go up to this Ethiopian and start preaching the gospel
to him. He asks him questions. And that's so wise. When Paul
went to Athens, he didn't just barge into the Areopagus and
began to preach the gospel to those philosophers. He walked
around the city for three days and he got to know some folks
and he saw their temples and he went into the place where
these philosophers met and he began to engage them in conversation.
I noticed you have a lot of a lot of statues around. I noticed
that you all are very religious, is what he said. Very superstitious. And there's one statue over there
to the unknown God. Would you like me to tell you
about him? Witnessing doesn't mean that
we walk up to somebody and just start brow-beating them about
the gospel. Oftentimes, if you just ask somebody a question...
You see, if you make a declaration to someone, even though it's
true, All you've done by making that declaration is tell them
that they're wrong and put them on the defense. But if you just
ask somebody a question, and they're not interested at that
point, that question can haunt them for a long time. The Lord
often uses rhetorical opportunities, questions, and best preaching
that I've ever heard. is rhetorical preaching where
a question is asked in the preaching and then an answer is given from
the scriptures as to what the answer to that question is. So that's what Philip's using. He's just asking him a question. He said, I heard you reading
from the book of Isaiah. I recognize those words that
you're speaking. Do you understand them? And the
evidence of God's grace is so strong in the next verse. Because,
I mean, here's a man who looks like a Bedouin out of the desert,
just walks up to his, you know, wealthy entourage and says to
this powerful Ethiopian, do you understand what you're reading?
And what would most men in his position say? Who are you? You
know, I've got a translator here, I can speak some Hebrew, I've
got the best education the world has to offer, and here you are
coming up to me and asking me, do I understand? Of course I
understand. That's what most folks say, don't
they? You can't teach me anything. I can't tell you how many times
I preach to folks and you can just tell from their body language
and from their attitude, preacher, just see if you can teach me
something. See if you can teach me something. There's people
like that. They just got it all worked out
and they don't think that you can instruct them on anything.
What does the Spirit of God do in the hearts of those who cry,
could this be for me? What doth hinder me to be saved? I'll tell you what He does. He
makes them teachable. He shuts their mouths. He opens their
ears. He causes them to say, how can
I, lest a man should teach me? I need someone to instruct me.
I've got to be, I've got to be, I've got to be taught from the
scriptures what the word of God really means. How can I accept a guide, except
a man should guide me?" And he desired Philip. He didn't, he
had the, I'm sure, like I said, I'm sure he had some, some soldiers
with him. He could have, get that man up
here. No, he asked him, would you please come up here and,
and sit here with me and tell me what this means? What a humble
spirit. What a teachable spirit. That's
the spirit that God gives us when he's dealing with us, isn't
he? Doesn't he? And the place of the scripture
which he read was this, Isaiah 53 verses 7 and 8. You know Isaiah
53. Who hath believed our report?
To whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? The place of the
scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter. Now you need to know that the
Jews did not see Isaiah 53 as a description of the Messiah.
How could they? I mean, here's a man who's going
to die. He's going to be, you know, he's going to... That was contrary to everything
that they believed about the Messiah. They either identified
it with Isaiah or with Jeremiah or with one of the other kings
of the Old Testament, but they didn't see it as a description
of Christ. So even if he had asked when
he was in Jerusalem, who's this talking about? They would have
given him the wrong answer. He was led as a sheep to the
slaughter, and like a lamb done before his shearer, so he opened
not his mouth. I'm sure Philip told him, that's
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world, the
Lamb that's without spot and without blemish, Jesus of Nazareth,
who died on a Roman's cross just a little while ago back there
in Jerusalem. Did you hear about him while you were there? Well,
you know, I did hear some things about a man who was claiming
to be the Messiah. Well, that's who this is talking
about. And he was put into a grave and three days later he was raised
again by the power of God and ascended into heaven and he ever
lives to make intercession for his people. He shed his precious
blood. His fleece is the covering that
we need for our righteousness before God. He told him all about
this lamb. And I'm sure he probably went
all the way back to the Garden of Eden and told him about Adam
and Eve and the lamb that was slain there in order to cover
his nakedness. And the lambs that were... Well,
perhaps he saw lambs slain in Jerusalem when he was there.
The sacrificial system was still going on. And so, he's beginning
to understand. Why didn't he open his mouth?
Why didn't he object? because he was bearing willingly
in his body the sins of his people, suffering the wrath of God willingly. And in taking our sins to become
his sins, he had no defense. He was guilty before God, and
God cut him off. God forsook him when he hung
on Calvary's cross and poured out the full wrath of God's fury
from heaven, judging him guilty, not for his own sins, but for
the sins of his people. In his humiliation, his judgment
was taken away. And who shall declare his generation
for his life is taken from the earth? He was humiliated. Humiliated before the very creatures
that he created, the very ones that he came to die for. Humiliated
before the armies of heaven. Humiliated before Satan. He was humiliated. And yet he
took that humiliation upon himself willingly and died in order to
accomplish the salvation of his people. And that he did. That
he did. And the eunuch answered Philip,
I pray thee. I mean, there's a huge difference
in socioeconomics between the Ethiopian eunuch, who's over
the treasury of all of Ethiopia, and little old Philip, preacher
from Antioch. And now this Ethiopian is begging
him, oh, tell me. Does the prophet speak of himself? I asked some of the Pharisees,
some of the rabbis back in Jerusalem about this passage and they said
he was talking about Jeremiah or Isaiah or one of the kings.
Does he speak of himself or does he speak of another? Because
I couldn't quite understand. Oh no, he speaks of another. Philip opened his mouth. and
began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. He preached
Christ to him, told him all about who the Lord Jesus Christ was, the holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, Son of God. the one who bore all the
sins of all of his people of all ages in his body on the cross
and put them away once and for all, never to be brought up again,
never to be remembered by God. I've separated your sins from
you as far as the east is from the west. I remember them no
more. He told him all about Christ, who he was and what he accomplished. Notice What happens? As they went on their way, verse
36, they came into a certain water, and the eunuch said, See,
here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized?
Now, if God has put that on your heart, and it, you know, not
just that, not, I mean, he's wanting to be baptized for the
first time. I want to be baptized. every day. I want to be baptized
with the Spirit of God. I want to be saved. I want the
Lord to... and I'm amazed that He would
have anything to do with me. What does hinder me? It's a good
question to ask. Is there anything that hinders
you? Someone might say, well, you
know, I need to learn more. What more do you need to learn?
You need to know that you're a sinner. And that's frankly
why small children, we don't encourage small children, we
could teach small children who Jesus is and get them to agree
to everything about Jesus, but you know, children don't have
a concept of sin. They can't. But if God's made you to be a
sinner, He's caused you to understand something about your sin. And
you understand who Christ is. What more is there to understand?
This Ethiopian, this is the first time he's ever heard the gospel.
First time he's ever been preached to him. He didn't sit on the
gospel for years and listen to a preacher tell about Christ.
He didn't know all the stories of the Bible. He knew about Isaiah
53. He knew about Christ. Well, I
need to feel more. What do you need to feel? What
does hinder me? These are the things that hinder
people. I need to understand more. I need to feel more. Feelings
come and feelings go. Feelings are deceiving. My warrant
is the Word of God. None else is worth believing.
You believe the Word of God? Don't wait for a feeling. Don't
let that hinder you. You say, well, I'm not worthy. I
hope the Lord shows you the self-righteousness of that. It sounds humble, doesn't
it? I'm not worthy. But it's so full
of self-righteousness. Are you suggesting that if you
had not done something that so burdened your soul that you'd
be more redeemable? There'd be more virtue in your
heart that would make you more accessible to salvation? Is that
the suggestion in that? You don't understand sin if that's
the case. Sin is everything we are. You say, well, what if I fall
away? What if it doesn't last? These are the things that hinder
most people from coming to Christ. These are the thoughts that men
have. He won't allow that to happen.
He won't. He keeps his children from falling
and presents them faultless before the throne of God. God gives
you faith to believe the gospel. You can't ever, ever become an
unbeliever. I want to close with this very,
very important point. And this is really what everything
I've said leads up to this, okay? And Philip said, verse 37, if
thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he said,
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. What does it
mean to believe with all your heart? I want to read a statement that
I wrote. If by sincere, we hear people
talk about, you know, you have to really be committed, you have
to really be sincere, you have to mean it with all your heart
now. You have to make sure that Jesus is really Lord of your
life. True faith is not judged by its
sincerity, but rather by its singularity. True faith is not
judged by its sincerity, but by its singularity. The honest
sinner will always hold himself suspect. He knows that his heart
is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, never
to be trusted. When he weighs his motives, he
finds them wanting. He can never escape his own hypocrisy,
wanting to be sincere and pure, yet seeing clearly the inconsistencies
of his own heart. So what is the hope that he really
does believe the gospel? Not sincerity in that sense,
but singularity. He's got no place else to go. All his hope which is what it
means to believe with all of your heart. All his hope rests
in the glorious person and accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is all his righteousness. Christ's blood is his only hope
for having his sins hid from the sight of a holy God. The
resurrection of Christ is the only hope he has that God is
satisfied. The ascension of Christ is his
only hope for an advocate before God. The return of Christ is
the only hope that he has in experiencing the kingdom of God.
In short, Christ is all. Saving faith has no place else
to go. Nothing can be added to it and
nothing can be taken away from Christ being his only hope. So do you have faith? Do you
believe with all your heart that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God? Believing with all of your heart
doesn't have anything to do with how sincere you are. It has to
do with the singularity of your faith. You've got no place else
to go. Christ is all you've got. That's
faith. Our Heavenly Father, we ask that
you would cause in our hearts that kind of faith and that you
would stir our hearts to to say, Lord, what doth hinder me? Don't
let me deceive myself. Don't let me set up false refuges. Lord, cause me to find Christ
my all and in all. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. 168. We'll sing acapella. I can't find it in this music
box. 168, even me. Even me. 168. Lord, I hear of showers of blessing. Thou art scattering full and
free. Showers the thirsty land refreshing. Let some drops now fall on me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not, O tender Savior,
let me love and cling to Thee. I am longing for Thy favor, whilst
Thou art calling, O call me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not, O mighty Spirit,
thou canst make the blind to see. Witnesser of Jesus' merit,
speak the word of power to me. Even me, even me, let Thy blessing
fall on me. Love of God so pure and changeless,
blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and boundless,
magnify them all in me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not thy lost one bringing,
bind my heart, O Lord, to thee. While the streams of life are
springing, blessing others, O bless me. Even me, even me, let thy
blessing fall on me. Thank you.